Conditions of Use and Licensing Restrictions for Electronic Resources

View Copyright and Use Statement

The Library subscribes to thousands of electronic journals, books, and other databases for use by authorized users (current faculty, students, staff, and in most cases, on-site visitors). The terms and conditions for using these resources are set out in agreements with each publisher. It is the responsibility of individual users to ensure that use of electronic resources does not breach the terms and conditions specified in the license agreements. Licenses vary from publisher to publisher; however, the general principles are the following:

Allowed:

  • Viewing, downloading, copying, printing, and saving a copy of search results and/or individual articles

  • Posting the URL to the publisher’s version of the article on a class or faculty website (publisher links will only allow authorized user access)

  • Sending a copy of an article to another authorized user (i.e. current faculty, students, or staff)

  • Using electronic resources for scholarly, educational or scientific research, teaching, private study, and clinical purposes

Not Allowed:

  • Use of robots or intelligent agents to do systematic, bulk, or automatic downloading is not allowed

  • Posting the publisher’s version or PDF to an open class or faculty website (i.e.: a site that is not password protected) is not allowed. Instead, post the URL to the article which will allow only authorized users access.

  • Systematic downloading or printing of entire journal issues or volumes, or large portions of other electronic resources is not allowed

  • Using electronic resources for commercial gain (i.e.: reselling, redistributing or republishing licensed content) is not allowed

  • Transmitting, disseminating, or otherwise making online content available to unauthorized users (i.e. sending to mailing lists or electronic bulletin boards) is not allowed

[Rev. 12/2010]